A New Non Linear Fuzzy Approach (NLFA) for Performance Evaluation of FDM Based 3D Printing Materials

In the rapidly changing globally market scenario, newly emerging 3D printing technology is quickly appearing as an effective cutting edge of business organizations in the domain of advanced additive manufacturing in industry 4.0. In selection of 3D printing materials, decision makers generally consider several alternatives and multiple criteria under fuzzy environment having vagueness, incompleteness and uncertainty regarding information. The judgement capability of the experts also differs from expert to expert. This complex situation makes the proper selection of the material very difficult. Therefore, this paper proposes a new Non-Linear Fuzzy Approach (NLFA) based multi criteria decision making technique considering heterogeneous group decision making framework. The proposed algorithm is illustrated by a Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) based 3D printing materials selection problem. The result obtained by the proposed method is compared with a number of existing conventional methodologies. The comparative analysis shows that the present algorithm is a capable and useful tool in decision making regarding FDM material selection. The proposed method may be a very important decision making aid to the industrial decision makers for similar environment.